Wildlife

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WILDLIFE - PAGE 3

Du Page County may be primarily suburban, but there is still some of the touch of the rural in it. Witness the 1991 wildlife control report of Officer Daniel Carlson of the Westmont Police Department. In answer to animal nuisance calls from residents during the year, Carlson trapped 18 opossums, 14 raccoons, 11 squirrels and nine cats classified as wild. Where possible, the critters were relocated; otherwise they were destroyed.

Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Brownies working on their wildlife badges can still register for Friday's "Scouts in the House" program sponsored by the McHenry County Conservation District. Each of the scheduled 45-minute presentations is tailored to different age groups and badge requirements, according to MCCD program coordinator Kim Caldwell. The program, which will be conducted in the Wiedrich Education Center at 6512 Harts Rd., Ringwood, is free. Participants must be accompanied by an adult.

Like deer, hate raccoons? Or wish the deer didn't consider your yard the local snack shop? And wouldn't it be nice to look out at butterflies and birds? Close to 25 people looked for such answers at "Critters and Crawlers," a wildlife program sponsored by the Long Grove Conservancy Committee at the Woodland Nature Center of the Reed-Turner Nature Woodland nature conservancy in Long Grove recently. Many who live in and near Long Grove because they like country living (Jean and Frank Pollard canoed across Salem Lake behind the woodland to hear the talk)

Four tigers and a lion from the Turpentine Creek Exotic Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas will visit Roosevelt University's Schaumburg campus May 8 as part of an annual seminar sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences. Two 2-year-old tigers, two 10-month-old tigers and an 18-month-old lion will be on display in the main courtyard and science atrium from 2:30 to 5 p.m. For $25, people 16 and older can see the animals up close and have a picture taken with them. Two Roosevelt professors--Vinton Thompson and Joshua Tesler--will speak on a variety of topics from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dolores McWhinnie, an associate professor of biology at DePaul University, will speak from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m.

With its carefully tended links and relatively few Canada geese, the Itasca Country Club long has been popular with area golfers. Now the club is making an effort to become more popular with local wildlife. The club recently received certification in five environmental stewardship programs administered by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System, an international Audubon education program that promotes enhanced wildlife habitats. To achieve the certifications, the club had to submit a site assessment of the property and develop plans for encouraging birds and wildlife to settle on the grounds.

A federal district judge has prohibited federal officials from allowing farmers and ranchers to use the poison strychnine as a rodent bait when it poses a threat to bald eagles, wolves, grizzly bears, migratory waterfowl and other protected wildlife species. Judge Diana Murphy ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency had violated the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other federal laws by registering strychnine for use as an above-ground pesticide to kill rodents.

Unless you read magazine credits, you probably never heard of Wyman Meinzer. That's the way he likes it. A rural, unpretentious man from the small north Texas town of Benjamin, Meinzer has quietly evolved into one of America's foremost wildlife photographers. Since 1979, his wildlife photographs have graced more than 100 magazine covers. Everyone from Browning Arms to National Geographic has bought Meinzer's slides for publication. Like many serious wildlife photographers, Meinzer's obsession with capturing animals on film evolved from an interest in hunting.

Last year three Field Museum biologists landed in Bhutan, a country half the size of Indiana touted to be a wildlife jewel in the southern Asian landscape. What they found amazed them. Sheep with thick, curling horns, brown spotted deer, and speckled owls smaller than pigeons were among the creatures thriving in the lush forests--and all needed identification. On Tuesday, biologists joined Bhutan natural resource and government officials in signing an agreement to conduct Bhutan's first comprehensive wildlife inventory.

With ongoing development in McHenry County, many environmentalists are trying to compensate for the land that is being taken away from wildlife. By creating natural landscapes in their own back yards, they are hoping to provide pockets of habitat in which wildlife can live and breed. "Many species need more areas than are currently available in order to live," explains Edi Normann of the McHenry County Defenders in Woodstock. "These native areas provide them with food, shelter, water and habitat for breeding purposes."

As expected, a handful of anti-hunters have their noses out of joint because deer and small-game hunting will continue on parts of the 19,000-acre Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. But contrary to some published objections, the public never has been misled on this issue. State and federal officials maintained from the outset that regulated hunting would have a place on the former Joliet Arsenal, as it has for decades of federal stewardship. If not for continued hunting, the prolific Midewin and its environs soon would cease being a wildlife paradise and become a wildlife ghetto, as overrun with deer and their concomitant ecological damage as Chicago's regional forest preserves, where hunting is not allowed.